How do you purchase your music: Vinyl / CD / DVD-Audio / MP3?

[Chaotic42]

We touched on this question in the DVD vs VHS thread and I thought it might be interesting enough to warrant its own poll and thread.

I'm in the CD camp. I prefer having a physical copy I can rip to MP3 or other digital format. DVD-Audio is nice, but it's pretty darn rare. I'd rather avoid buying MP3s if I can help it. I don't like the fuzziness of vinyl and I don't even have a turntable anymore. It's tempting to get one so I can hit up yardsales for some cheap tunes, but it's not a priority.

What say you?

 

[Eug]

As I posted in the other thread:

10 years ago: 100% CD. Well, 99% CD and 1% DVD-Audio.
Now: 75% CD and 25% iTunes AAC.

It'd be 100% CD if I could find everything I wanted on CD for a decent price, but as mentioned, some titles aren't even available these days for CD, esp. if they're international indie albums.

Oh and just for the hell of it, I occasionally go to antique shops and buy 75 year old 78 rpm records to play on my hand crank phonograph.

EDIT:

Now that I think about it's, it's probably more like 85%-90% CD, and 10-15% iTunes AAC.

 

[BxgJ]

Google music currently. When I find something I really like I'll buy the song/album and download it for offline use, though I often purchase through amazon.

 

[Freestyle7]

I buy CD's & convert to uncompressed FLAC (1400+ kbps).

 

[Aikouka]

It depends on pricing. I like to buy physical albums from Amazon that have AutoRip, as I get MP3 copies and physical copies as a back-up. However, I'll only do that if the price is good enough to warrant it. If I can find an album on sale for say... $1 on Google Play Music, I'll buy it from there instead.

 

[Eug]

I buy CD's & convert to uncompressed FLAC (1400+ kbps).

Yes, about 98% of my CDs are converted, albeit in my case to MP3 and AAC. I considered uncompressed, but at the time (a long time ago) when I converted most of my CDs, uncompressed wasn't a viable solution.

Now I just do it all with 256 Kbps AAC. My collection is a mix of 256 Kbps MP3, 192 Kbps AAC, and 256 Kbps AAC, plus whatever bitrate my digital purchases came as.

 

[Spacehead]

Yeah, i still purchase CDs.

 

[Crono]

I have a Spotify subscription and sometimes use Groove (formerly Xbox Music and Zune before that). I also use YouTube a lot. The music I own, though, is off Amazon. I have a handful of CDs, but whenever I buy music (rarely) it's Amazon mp3 or CD with AutoRip.

 

[Brainonska511]

If I just want one song, I'll usually go for an mp3 from Amazon. Otherwise, I go for a CD or flac.

 

[master_shake_]

if i want a song or something youtube + stereo mix + record.

 

[nutxo]

purchase?

 

[ImpulsE69]

I stream everything. I can handle the barely noticeable difference in quality and don't have to deal with everything else.

 

[Mai72]

I stream everything anymore.

I pay $3 a month do I can listen to Slacker add free.

 

[Imp]

YouTube... I do buy albums I really like from iTunes.

I used to buy CDs, listen to them once, then rip them using variable bit rate with Windows Media Player. Then I got tired of having to keep the physical copy and wait for delivery.

 

[effowe]

Only buy Vinyl Albums, most these days come with MP3 download codes to get full lossless (usually) files.

 

[renz20003]

I don't purchase music. When I hear a good song on the radio I'll record it on cassette, which is obviously the best format for music quallity.

 

[lxskllr]

Digital. My preference is flac transcoded to q8 vorbis. Physical media sucks. It takes up a ton of room, and I don't have the time or inclination to care for it like I did when I was a kid. I like being a button press away from anything I want to hear.

 

[Triumph]

I don't buy music as much anymore, I tend to just listen to the same old albums. But if I do buy something, for the same price as a digital download I better get a physical CD in my hands, damnit. Otherwise, I mostly just stream Pandora or Youtube mixes. EVERYTHING is on YT.

 

[FeuerFrei]

I'm forced to buy a lot of mp3s these days, because I have to cherry-pick tracks off albums.
But CD is preferred (if I want the entire album). I'd rather rip tracks myself than download them. And they play in any drive, unlike DVD-audio. Having a hard copy is nice too. I buy maybe 10 CDs a year. Maybe half are used, at $5-8. If the CD costs anywhere near what the MP3s cost, I get the CD every time.

I'm about to order $35 worth of mp3s off Amazon. If I was forced to buy them on CD, I'd have to spend $80-$120.

I have 3 or 4 DVD-audio discs (Flaming Lips, Stone Temple Pilots, R.E.M., The Crystal Method), but it's so hard to find any albums worth buying in that format. If I were into classic rock I'd have more selection.

I don't purchase music. When I hear a good song on the radio I'll record it on cassette, which is obviously the best format for music quallity.

I used to do that when I was a kid, I mean, young adult.

 

[Sabrewings]

As I've grown older, I've come to despise physical media (be it games, movies, or music). It takes up space, looks tacky on shelves, and just sits there doing nothing most of the time. Give me a media server with purchased MP3s any day.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I prefer cd audio because I can control the bit rate when converting it to digital for portability. When DA offers a high bit rate I might consider it over physical media.

 

[pmv]

I buy cds because I'm old and it's a habit, and weirdly and irrationally, I end up feeling as if buying digital files now would be like admitting I should have just joined the illegal downloading lark decades ago and saved all that money on objects that now aren't really worth anything (as objects). Objects which also take up stupid amounts of space.

I suspect if I'd been a few years younger I'd have been one of those Napster kiddies who never paid for anything unless completely unavoidable, but I've ended up being honest for essentially the wrong reasons.

On the plus side, cds are less vulnerable to media-failure disasters, and I've gradually re-ripped everything at higher-and-higher bit-rates as storage space has increased - if I'd gone for mp3s at the start I'd have ended up with loads of tracks at 128kbps or stupid DRMed formats.

Do buy digital files occasionally as nowadays lots of stuff is just not available in any other format.

What annoys me is that its actually _harder_ to get hold of stuff that has only been released as downloads in other countries than it used to be to get hold of foreign-released cds. The cd companies and iTunes go out of their way to make it impossible to legally obtain things outside of the intended market. Its daft that if something is on CD you can order an import CD, but if its only released digitally you can't legally buy it at all.

 

[KeithTalent]

I only stream through Google Play Music now. There is nothing new coming out that I feel the need to purchase and I have uploaded all of my old CDs to Google Play Music so now i just have everything mixed in there so I can listen to whatever I want, whenever I want.

KT

 

[IronWing]

I just sing and hum. It's free and doesn't take up any space though memory losses tend to cause stutter and skips.

 

[stargazr]

Mostly CD's, ripped to FLAC. I use the discs in my truck also. I have some mp3 stuff from when Amazon used to have them on sale every week.

I like the better quality files on CD.I have access to a local chain that sells used CD's reasonably. I love it; have found so many albums I didn't know existed including out of print stuff. I wish more music was available in FLAC to purchase.